Poll of the Day > Windows 7 was peak Windows?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Somehow I missed out on that iteration. I went from Vista to 8

Same; I went from '98 to XP to 8.1 to 10 to 11.

Was 7 really peak or was Vista just that bad?
Can we say the same for Win 10?

7 didn't have baked in spyware, so that was nice.

8.1 was peak tbh

I still prefer XP.

to iterate on 8.1

it was fucking fast, it was sleek, it was slick, it was appealing to look at, it didn't have all the easily turn off-able telemetry data harvesting that 10 and 11 have, windows search was so good it knew what you were searching for as you fucking typed it

"yeah you only typed the letter t, and there's so much shit here that has the letter t in it, but you want this one specific file right there at the top don't you?"

and you fucking did.

XP and 7 were about equal, IMO, both at the top.

Switched from 7 to 11 in 2021 and, while still usable, 11 still has the nagging, pointless changes and limitations that it started with.

XP is the best actually.

I actually kind of liked Windows 8. I got accustomed to customizing the start screen, and I liked the minimalist UI. I still only use the start menu to search, so it's not like I was missing it on W8. But I think it was the first Windows OS that forced telemetry that could only be disabled via registry or gpedit. Don't know if I would call it peak though. Probably was 7 or XP.

This is actually not true at all. People involved with tech tend to hate any change so dont listen to them.

Peak is probably 7.
It's on the tail end of the virus years, at the beginning of the telemetry years.
In 7 Microsoft was still boasting how they got the kernel to use something like 248mb of RAM. (Ignoring Linux using under 16mb at the time).

I say XP. Everything after was a downgrade

Yeah, XP

Kids today don't know about Windows 3.1

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f916cf72.jpg

captpackrat posted...

Kids today don't know about Windows 3.1

I've still got a computer packed away in storage. Which might still work if I tried to turn it on again (it worked last time I turned it off).

I'm pretty sure that one was running 3.1. Though it might have been NT. I forget which now.

I remember my one roommate in college had OS/2 on his computer though.

XP was peak, especially if you could run 64 bit.
7 was the last good operating system though, so that's nothing to dismiss.
XP had so much freedom.

SinisterSlay posted...

Peak is probably 7.
It's on the tail end of the virus years, at the beginning of the telemetry years.
In 7 Microsoft was still boasting how they got the kernel to use something like 248mb of RAM. (Ignoring Linux using under 16mb at the time).

Whenever i received a virus, i knew it and it was my fault. They were pretty easy to avoid and there was a ton of free software at the time. Idk if I've ever had a virus in the past...15 years of my life or so.

pedro45 posted...

XP was peak, especially if you could run 64 bit.
7 was the last good operating system though, so that's nothing to dismiss.
XP had so much freedom.

Whenever i received a virus, i knew it and it was my fault. They were pretty easy to avoid and there was a ton of free software at the time. Idk if I've ever had a virus in the past...15 years of my life or so.

After xp sp2 idle viruses got more rare. Though there was still a small chance that without ever using your computer, Internetoptimizer or the like shows up in your task list, sitting there quietly.
Vista and 7 were when they finally clamped down on drive by viruses.

Also Windows 7 is 17 years old. Sorry

SinisterSlay posted...

Also Windows 7 is 17 years old. Sorry

Next you're going to try to convince me that 1980 wasn't 20 years ago.

XP was peak Windows. 7 was good, as were 95 and 3.1 (for their time). 10 is OK. All other iterations of Windows are mid-to-trash.

XP was plagued by viruses, I don't know how anyone can long for it besides nostalgia

Damn_Underscore posted...

XP was plagued by viruses, I don't know how anyone can long for it besides nostalgia

Not my fault someone thought that a 26kb file titled Outkast - Hey Ya.exe was a legit download

GanglyKhan posted...

Not my fault someone thought that a 26kb file titled Outkast - Hey Ya.exe was a legit download

No but you inserted that Cat5 cable into the back of your machine. So that random virus that appeared on your computer while it was sitting idle was your fault.

I think Windows XP was the best. Then Windows Vista ruined it.

captpackrat posted...

Kids today don't know about Windows 3.1

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f916cf72.jpg

I miss the simplicity of 3.1.

But also it was somewhat of a failure since Microsoft couldn't really convince people to start moving off of DOS until 95. Less of a failure than Windows 1 - 3.0 though.

Chip's Challenge was my jam on 3.1.

XP was peak

I still have and use my xp

I did like XP, tbh. Moving from that to 7 felt like a downgrade, although 7 was still less annoying than the stuff that came afterward.

Damn_Underscore posted...

This is actually not true at all. People involved with tech tend to hate any change so dont listen to them.

Nah it's true.

Windows XP is probably peak, but one thing I recall is, while I was probably an idiotic computer user in my youth, I seriously have not had to sysrestore or format a drive due to issues in years. in the XP days it was like several times a year for one reason or another. Might strictly be user error but I recall encountering a lot of shit back than that doesn't happen now.

I'd go back to windows XP with quality of life upgrades and no bullshit(like, idk, here's ads catered to YOU on your desktop) in a second if I could.

Windows XP would have been better than 7 if you could order the taskbar icons around.

If you say an older version of Windows was better please explain why.

The print screen tool in Windows 11 is a big improvement over previous versions because you select the area of the screen you want to print automatically as part of the feature. Related to that, basic Windows programs like Paint are better organized than ever. You just open the start menu and they are all right there. And I absolutely love how the file explorer has tabs now. One annoyance is not being able to easily refresh the file explorer as far as I can tell. You have to go outside of the page you are on and back in again. Windows 11 took a bit of time to get used to, but I am used to it now and I can see the improvements.

Damn_Underscore posted...

XP was plagued by viruses, I don't know how anyone can long for it besides nostalgia

Think about it from the perspective of a gaming machine and the features that it had from previous operating systems along with new ones. The leap it had from the 9x era and even what Windows 2000 was like. That's why it lasted as long as it did until 2014.

Like I said, XP with quality of life upgrades. The snipping tool is awesome and I use it a lot and love it. Give me something that looks and functions like xp with QOLU and security. But none of the invasive shit we have now.

Damn_Underscore posted...

The print screen tool in Windows 11 is a big improvement over previous versions

The Snipping Tool app? It was pretty buggy for me; I ended up uninstalling it to get the W10 screencap functionality back. I do agree with Paint and File Explorer (though I don't really use the latter--I've been using DoubleCommander for years now).

one thing that no version of windows seems to be able to do correctly is multimonitor setups

for the most part, it works

but occasionally it just fucks up. currently, on my computer, it thinks monitor 2 is the "main" monitor, instead of monitor 1, which is the main monitor

and the reason? it's because monitor 2 is using a displayport cable and 1 is using hdmi, so for some reason windows defaults a monitor with displayport as the main monitor even though it knows that it's not inside windows itself.

so whenever i go to use my computer, when i wake it up it puts every single open window on monitor 2, instead of it just leaving them on the monitor they were on. the only way i can tell to fix this is a complete fresh reinstallation of windows, but that's not fixing it. that's putting a dusty post it note over it that says fixed, but it's only temporary, because this'll be the fourth time this has happened.

7 was definitely the end of the "classic Windows" era, but it's not the peak.

Peak Windows was definitely Windows 2000 - it was basically a perfect OS at the time. no junk, no UI weirdness, no gimmicks, just a no-nonsense operating environment.

Damn_Underscore posted...

The print screen tool in Windows 11 is a big improvement over previous versions because you select the area of the screen you want to print automatically as part of the feature.

The snipping tool's been around since Vista, and I'm pretty sure it's been accessible by keyboard shortcut the whole time.

Damn_Underscore posted...

Related to that, basic Windows programs like Paint are better organized than ever.

It's a marginal improvement over 10, but 10's Paint is notably harder to navigate than previous versions. "Slightly better than something that's significantly worse than previous versions" still translates to "worse than previous versions."

Layers are a nice addition, but let's be real: Anybody getting serious enough about digital art to use layers isn't using Microsoft Paint for it.

Damn_Underscore posted...

You just open the start menu and they are all right there.

The programs you've pinned or frequently use are. Any other program, though, requires much more awkward digging in the start menu to access than in 10 or any previous version.

Damn_Underscore posted...

And I absolutely love how the file explorer has tabs now.

Why? If I have multiple file explorer windows open (especially for personal use), it's almost always for the sake of dragging files between different folders, and tabs are far worse for that than having separate windows. In the handful of other cases where I just need to have access to multiple folders at the same time, swapping between windows is no harder than swapping between tabs.

Damn_Underscore posted...

One annoyance is not being able to easily refresh the file explorer as far as I can tell.

There's still a refresh button.

Damn_Underscore posted...

Windows 11 took a bit of time to get used to, but I am used to it now and I can see the improvements.

My work computer got updated to it a while ago and I'm quite used to it by now, but I still vastly prefer using 10 on my personal computer (and I'd consider 10 a sidegrade at best compared to 7).

Damn_Underscore posted...

If you say an older version of Windows was better please explain why.

If nothing else, you used to be able to just use the OS' search feature to search for files on your computer, not give you a bunch of web results as though you can't just open a web browser and search for web results from there. I think that particular adverse change goes back as far as Vista, though, so it's not exactly exclusive to newer versions of Windows (though trying to inject various AI assistant options started with Cortana in 8).

It's telling how virtually everyone agrees that around xp/7 era was the best. Peak operating system design is when it knows its place.

Yellow posted...

It's telling how virtually everyone agrees that around xp/7 era was the best. Peak operating system design is when it knows its place.

Windows also tends to alternate between a decent version and a terrible version. XP was great, Vista sucked. 7 was great, 8 sucked (though 8.1 did make some substantial improvements). 10 was great (if not as good as XP/7), 11 sucks. That's a big part of why being forced into 11 is such an issue: in the past, people have been able to skip the weaker versions of Windows by waiting a few years. That's not an option this time, because 11 is the only supported version available for the foreseeable future.

11 is just 10.1, lets be honest here

Why does 11 suck?

Being forced to update operating systems sucks, having to make an effort to not use a Microsoft account sucks (actually you don't need to do this if you are transferring over from Windows 10, and upgrading is free so it's annoying but not a big deal). But the OS itself is just fine.

I hate dragging programs because it leads to a lot of annoying mistakes. So that is why the tabs are so good. And these are the programs auto-pinned to the start menu, this is a big design improvement for Windows:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/975d0e13.jpg

^Getting that pic was a much nicer experience than in previous versions of Windows BTW

also, it's fucking windows.

if you don't like something, change it.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/ee449d07.jpg

my shit is clean af

Damn_Underscore posted...

If you say an older version of Windows was better please explain why.

The print screen tool in Windows 11 is a big improvement over previous versions because you select the area of the screen you want to print automatically as part of the feature. Related to that, basic Windows programs like Paint are better organized than ever. You just open the start menu and they are all right there. And I absolutely love how the file explorer has tabs now. One annoyance is not being able to easily refresh the file explorer as far as I can tell. You have to go outside of the page you are on and back in again. Windows 11 took a bit of time to get used to, but I am used to it now and I can see the improvements.

The print screen button is shitty in 11. If I wanted to snip something specific then I would open the snipping tool. It takes twice as long to take a full screenshot now.

Revelation34 posted...

The print screen button is shitty in 11. If I wanted to snip something specific then I would open the snipping tool. It takes twice as long to take a full screenshot now.

Windows + shift + s

Works in 10 and 11.

Mac is command + control + shift + 4 which is kind of ridiculous.

On Nix it's usually command/Windows key + shift +.printscrn

All of these give you quick access to screenshot when you draw a box and it pastes to your clipboard.

I miss GEOS.

Windows 3.1 is the only version where I actually used the, y'know, WINDOWS part of windows... everything since has just been internet runners

ooger posted...

I miss GEOS.

I still have a Brother GeoBook.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6c18ece6.jpg

captpackrat posted...

I still have a Brother GeoBook.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6c18ece6.jpg

Yo, I didn't even know that was a thing!

The only GEOS I've used was on a C64.